ATLANTA -- It's inexcusable for a major league team to lose 100 games in a season.

Just ask Padres General Manager Kevin Towers, who made that statement several times in 2003 before the Padres wound up with 98 defeats.

Don't look now, but this Padres team is on pace to lose 103 games.

Sure, only 20 percent of the season is done, but by losing 15 of their last 19 games -- including Tuesday night's 5-3 decision to the Braves at Turner Field -- the Padres (12-21) are stirring up memories of 2003, their final year in Mission Valley.

The Padres already trail the first-place Diamondbacks by 10 games in the National League West. The second-place Dodgers, considered by veteran scouts to be at least as talented as the Diamondbacks, are seven games ahead of the Padres. The Padres are 10 games or more out of first for the first time since late 2003, and this is the earliest they've been 10 or more back since May 4 of that year.

"It's early," said Padres right fielder Brian Giles, "but you can't be this bad this long in a division that's as competitive as it is."

Said pitcher Chris Young: "We're not playing good baseball. That's obvious. There's still a lot of baseball left to be played, but we're digging ourselves a big hole.

"There are a lot of things that need to be corrected."

Whether the front office can fix them is in question, for the front office, which made several good moves from 2005 through last summer, has proved to be a part of this team's problem.

Unable to reach terms with center fielder Mike Cameron last offseason, CEO Sandy Alderson and Towers tried to patch the hole with Jim Edmonds, the 37-year-old former Cardinals star acquired in December.

Edmonds will get votes for the Hall of Fame from sportswriters who recall his graceful work in center, where he earned eight Gold Gloves. They also will value his long track record of swatting balls to all fields and beyond.

But for the Padres, he has more resembled a boxer who stayed around too long.

Batting in the No. 5 hole despite a .181 average with one home run 83 at-bats, Edmonds torpedoed the offense Tuesday night by making three harmless outs with runners in scoring position. His final at-bat yielded another out, dropping his on-base percentage to .255.

The enigmatic Khalil Greene had an even more gruesome evening, striking out in all four at-bats from the No. 6 spot.

Yet when Padres hitting star Adrian Gonzalez sent a high drive soaring toward the right-field pole with one out in the ninth inning, Giles bounced off second base thinking it would go for a three-run home run to give the Padres a 6-5 lead.

But it drifted foul by 8-10 feet. "He stayed inside that ball," Giles said of a hitting technique that reduces a hook. "It didn't hook. It must have been the wind."

Cashing the reprieve, San Diego State alum Royce Ring struck out Gonzalez. Another reliever, Jeff Bennett, retired Kevin Kouzmanoff to seal the Padres' fifth defeat in seven games on a trip that will end Thursday.